exactly. I want a pyramid built, and need a couple thousand human forklifts who can listen to basic commands and be quickly replaced when they are crushed, fall to their death, etc. We are talking about a blood and sweat economy, not a knowledge and service economy.

quote:Econometrics = unicorns pissing rainbows.

(what you call) opinion based economics = Praxeology (The SCIENCE of human action).

Econometrics is scientific economics; economic study based on math, statistics and empirical evidence.

Praxelogy is a reductionist philosophy used by no one but Austrian school economists. It belongs in the 17th century, along with all the other interesting but flawed philosophies that attempted to explain our world prior to the development of the scientific method.

re: How much would taxes have to rise on each taxpayerPosted by joshnorris14 on 2/26/13 at 12:12 am to RandyVandy

quote:exactly. I want a pyramid built, and need a couple thousand human forklifts who can listen to basic commands and be quickly replaced when they are crushed, fall to their death, etc. We are talking about a blood and sweat economy, not a knowledge and service economy.

You're still not getting as productive of labor as you would if they weren't slaves (The people who built the Egyptian pyramids weren't slaves fyi)

re: How much would taxes have to rise on each taxpayerPosted by joshnorris14 on 2/26/13 at 12:14 am to RandyVandy

quote:Praxelogy is a reductionist philosophy used by no one but Austrian school economists. It belongs in the 17th century, along with all the other interesting but flawed philosophies that attempted to explain our world prior to the development of the scientific method.

You can't use the scientific method in the social sciences effectively. Mises axioms deduced from praxeologically were factual. They are irrefutable. I would love to see you try to refute one of them.

re: How much would taxes have to rise on each taxpayerPosted by joshnorris14 on 2/26/13 at 12:56 am to RandyVandy

quote:Why?

No incentives, only consequences. They are not acting beings, they are reduced to obey with no hope for betterment. Because of that, they do not work hard. They work, at best, at the minimum rate to not be beat. And at every turn they must be commanded as to what to do.

re: How much would taxes have to rise on each taxpayerPosted by RandyVandy on 2/26/13 at 1:16 am to joshnorris14

quote:No incentives, only consequences. They are not acting beings, they are reduced to obey with no hope for betterment. Because of that, they do not work hard. They work, at best, at the minimum rate to not be beat. And at every turn they must be commanded as to what to do.

Plenty of slaves rose to positions of privilege and authority, especially in the Islamic world and even in the antebellum south. In Europe, you just described life for 90% of the population up until the abolishing of serfdom.

Most modern American shift workers do the bare minimum, and they are protected by labor laws. You are ignoring the benefits of an expendable workforce.

Slaves didn't always need to be commanded as to what to do; they weren't idiots and knew their daily responsibilities. Irregardless, every enterprise need people that just perform whatever menial labor they are instructed; hence my "human forklift" analogy. This was especially true prior to industrialization, automation, etc.

I am of course speaking in generalities in the above.

quote:So refute the action axiom.

There is nothing to refute! It is basically a simple statement of x+y=z, with almost no definition of terms. The claims of libertarians don't even necessarily follow from it, nor is it really transferable to macro-economics.

re: How much would taxes have to rise on each taxpayerPosted by RandyVandy on 2/26/13 at 1:41 am to joshnorris14

quote:You just said it was definitely refutable by definition since it was a priori. What happened?

I said irrefutable...

quote:There is no such thing as macroeconomics.

Yes, there is. And it deals with a lot of the same concepts as the ASoE (business cycle theory, monetary theory, etc).

quote:Yes you are speaking in vast generalities in a posterriori since with no proof. Also, are you going to back up your claim that the pyramids were built by slaves?

It wasn't a claim, per se. Just a rather informal example. I'll gladly concede that the pyramids were not built by slaves (though I will say it is probably debatable that slaves or de facto slaves were not part of the labor force used in building the pyramids). is you assertion that no great historical construction projects (or other undertakings) heavily used slaves, and that in fact the conditions of slavery made their construction possible in a pre-industrial setting?

My definition of a successful socialized medicine system requires that every healthcare desire I have be satisfied. Thus, I know that the amount of medical services I would consume would increase. Every minor complaint I have would result in a visit for medical services since my health would be the single most important issue on planet Earth given the unlimited resources of others I'd be willing to spend on my health care. So you should expect to pay a lot in taxes to provide for a successful socialized medicine system for me, Poodlebrain.